The Scarlet Letter Essay Preview (I will hand out the full assignment on Monday)

 Writing about a key theme: a theme is an overarching message/idea about people, society, etc. that a work of literature can teach a reader.  

An author may advance a central theme through a particular character’s development, through the juxtaposition of two key characters, other conflicts, or through the use of rhetorical elements such as imagery, symbols, metaphor, or other figurative language.

A reader can make inferences about a key theme based upon the literary elements listed above, as well as by analyzing diction patterns, the author’s syntax and style, and the author’s tone in key passages.

Your thesis statement should make a precise and concise argument about an important message /idea that Hawthorne’s novel can teach readers.

Pitfalls to avoid: clichés (don’t judge a book by its cover") , one-word 'generic themes' like “revenge”, "sin" "redemption", "secrets",  or vague phrases like “good vs. evil," "the human condition, ” or "appearances vs. reality."

Meta-cognition Reflection Piece (one-time piece; due along with essay): Along with the essay, I will also ask you to write a reflection on how you developed an interest in this theme as you read. In addition to noting how particular passages and the novel as a whole influenced your interest in a particular theme, I want you to examine how your personality, intellect, worldview and life experience may have influenced what themes you payed particular attention to. Reflect on what made you notice or pay attention to a particular theme(s) in The Scarlet Letter. How does that theme(s) intersect or in some way relate to your own ideas, opinions, or questions about life, society, religion, human nature, etc? And, of course, also simply pay attention to and reflect on how particular passages in the text may have steered you towards a particular theme which it seems that Hawthorne is developing.

Textually-based Theme Reflections (Daily pieces in notebook/3-ring binder): To help you prepare for your essay and your metacognition reflection piece, after each day’s reading (either that night or the following morning), you will write a paragraph sharing your interpretation of how particular passages from that day’s reading might be related to a theme(s) that you see developing in the text.  These daily entries will help you write the metacognition reflection piece and your essay.  In these paragraphs you can also reflect on how your own questions and ideas about these themes influenced what you noticed in that day’s readings (personal metacognition reflection).  

American Romanticism

—Romanticism is the name given to those schools of thought that value feeling and intuition over reason.

—Romantics believed that the imagination was able to discover truths that the rational mind could not reach.

—Usually accompanied by powerful emotion and associated with natural, unspoiled beauty.

—Imagination, individual feelings, and wild nature were of greater value than reason, logic, and cultivation.

—Romantic writers placed a new emphasis on intuitive, “felt” experience and often contrasted poetry with science, which they saw as destroying the very truth it claimed to seek.

—The romantics wanted to rise above “dull realities” to a realm of higher truth and searched for exotic settings in the more “natural” past or in a world far removed from the grimy and noisy industrial age.

—Romantic writers tried to reflect on the natural world until dull reality fell away to reveal underlying beauty and truth. 

Summary of Romanticism Powerpoint—

Values feeling and intuition over reason.

—Place faith in inner experience and the power of imagination.

—Shuns the artificiality of civilization and seeks unspoiled nature.

—Prefers youthful innocence to educated sophistication.

—Champions individual freedom and the worth of the individual.

—Reflects on nature’s beauty as a path to spiritual and moral development.

—Looks backward to the wisdom of the past and distrusts progress.

—Finds beauty and truth in exotic locales, the supernatural realm and the inner world of the imagination.

—Sees poetry as the highest expression of imagination.

—Finds inspiration in myth, legend, and folklore.

Homework: Read and annotate Chapters 3 & 4 of The Scarlet Letter; on Monday you can do Textually-based Theme Reflectioon #2 in class